Did you watch Tiger Woods’ press conference?

I just finished watching Tiger Woods’ press conference. So many thoughts: I’m of the school of thought that the only people who deserve an apology are his wife and kids. That said, I’m not impressed with an apology press conference where you decide which press to invite, where you read a written statement and where you don’t take questions. As someone on sports talk radio pointed out the other day, that’s just Tiger trying to establish himself as the alpha male again.

What did you think? And how did you feel about the clever positioning of mom in the front row followed by the post-conference, insanely long hug? If I were his mama, I’d be feeling a bit used.

35 Responses

Kids are impressionable. They believe the phony front these athletes put up. “Look at my beautiful wife, my beautiful kids, my beautiful house, my wonderful life. The foundation I have set up to help needy kids.”….all the while sneaking and hiding a whole other dirty side from the public so they can sell more product.

My seven year old son is totally enamored with Eli Manning. He has his autographed picture hanging in his room with the words “You rock” that he wrote under it. He watches the games from beginning to end. He pleads to go to training camp and watch Eli up close, and maybe, just maybe, meet him and get his autograph. 90% of the books he takes out from the library are about football. No matter what any other athlete does, my son looks up to Eli Manning. If Eli was to become caught up in some scandal his bubble would be burst and a piece of his innocence would be gone. We are adults, our bubbles have already been burst. We are jaded, we are not so surprised by these things any more. Many kids however are hurt by these revelations, that just seem to become more sleezy with each one.

So when an athlete purports to live his life a certain way, so he/she can reach out to a larger fan base and make more money from that base, then yes, he owes them an apology for the lies he lived and told to make a profit off of that phony persona. He most especially owes that apology to the kids that admired him, because they just don’t know any better than to believe that persona they were sold.

In advertising you learn all about public relations. And as anyone knows public relations is both media agents, chaos consultants, and damage control. If you cannot tell this is scripted, you are very wrong. Another thing to point out is any person that is willing to be with a celebrity as cold as tiger woods, or any celebrity for that matter is subject to negative press. Press doesn’t have morals when it comes to diving into a persons personal life this is a great example of that.

So lets note the following things, Tiger Woods, does not care about this speech it shows in his failure to correctly execute any emotion while reading it out loud. Next pay attention to the legal words used, the repetitious inclusion of “children” and assaults on press issues that can’t be proven true but sound powerful enough to make him look like a victim.

If you haven’t learned by now most people with that kind of money and lifestyle really are six tiers lower from having human emotion then you probably believe what the magazines tell you at the point of purchase stand in grocery stores across the world. At the same point let each to their own, we are in no place to care for him as a friend what has he done on a personal level for us? Play golf? Just like all sports we watch for entertainment. In a few years he will be right back out there, all mistakes forgiven and forgotten and somebody new will rise to the surface to take the media spotlight while issues of actual concern are pushed aside. Let’s not forget the surge of troops sent to Afghanistan a few months ago and the only news station to speak of it was NPR. Can you remember what we were hearing about everywhere else? Tiger Woods.

Jennifer, I was merely comparing the statements of Jesus to Buddha. The former said He was the only way. I had a friend who was a devout Buddhist. He was a good guy, would never have cheated on his wife, but didn’t believe Jesus was the only Son of God. That’s his prerogative, as it is Tiger’s..and yours. I don’t deny anything I’ve said.